Geoff has been away over the past few weeks (and for the next couple of months!) as a project officer with the Sydney Theatre Company’s play The Long Way Home. It’s getting rave reviews and selling out very quickly, so get your tickets early! In any case, he’s handed the reins over to Sarah for this blog post…
—
Hi everyone, and happy Autumn!
“If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn” – Charlie Parker
In this March edition of the Greysen blog I wanted to talk about the value of doing recordings, as in the past few weeks I’ve learnt the hard way that Bird’s quote isn’t quite comprehensive enough!
I just finished a recorded audition for an overseas orchestra, and to my dismay, the first take of the recording was a bit of a wake-up call. My playing wasn’t how I thought it sounded. When I thought I was being vivacious and scherzo-like, I was actually just being a bit accented and un-controlled. On the flip side, when I thought I was struggling with tonal projection and vibrato, the recording picked up a sweet flowing tone. In short, I learnt (well, ‘re-learnt’, because I already knew this) that you can’t trust your ears when you’re on the instrument. (or in front of an ensemble, either).
With the right recording equipment, you need to do a check-up every now and again. Record yourself and listen to it with a tuning machine on – this is better than just using the pitch machine in practice time (although for God’s sake, keep doing that anwyay!) because you don’t have the distraction of physically manipulating the instrument as you listen. It’s important to keep flexing that analytical muscle – “was that crescendo as effective as I expected?” “was my use of vibrato effective here?” “did I allow dynamics to affect pitch” and so on… This all applies to ensembles and ensemble directors too. I think there is also an element of cognitive bias involved (especially when directing an ensemble) that will tend to make you believe that things are great just because of the amount of time and effort it took to create them. I aim to be as un-biased as possible when I’m conducting, so that I can evaluate whether a piece really has improved over 6 weeks, or if my increased familiarity (yes, even familiarity with the ‘bad bits’) just made me like it more. Ever noticed how you can grow to like an annoying tune once you’ve heard it enough? I reckon the same danger exists for poor performance.
The recording also affords you the opportunity to analyse what is actually heard by the audience, verses what you hear in your head. When you hear your own sound, you hear it permeating through your facial bones and muscles before reaching your ears, in addition to what the audience hears bouncing around the room. You can hear that tiny bit of spit that got stuck on the mouthpiece, or your tongue hammering away in your mouth like a jackhammer. But the audience can’t. I once knew someone who played in the orchestral pit of the Australian Ballet, and she remarked to me how noisy the pounding of the dancers’ feet were on the stage – it was like being in an earthquake. But you couldn’t tell that from the audience’s perspective – the dancers look light as a feather. If you’re aware what will and will not transfer to the audience, you can re-assess the limitations of the instrument.
The other massive bonus of doing a recording is that it forces you to do “one good take” of any piece you’re performing. You can’t stop and just “do that bit again”. Forcing yourself to raise the bar will improve your on-stage performances and prepare you for any higher end recording in future.
There you go. You already knew all of that, I guarantee. But it helps to remember occasionally.
Cheers
Sarah
Recent Comments